Chips Quinn alumni give back to the program by mentoring new interns
By Catalina Camia
Freedom Forum Diversity Fellow
06.29.02
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| Ryan Hiraki |
Ryan Hiraki, a young journalist eager to improve, craves feedback.
During a newspaper internship, Hiraki worked closely with his editor at the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y. He devoured writing tips he read on the Web and received through e-mail from a writing coach.
But Hiraki also credits weekly phone chats with Manny Lopez, his mentor during the Spring 2002 Chips Quinn Scholars program, with helping him become a better writer.
“Manny didn’t hold back," said Hiraki, now an intern at the News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla. “Every time I got my clips back, there would be a billion marks. He had a lot of constructive criticism, and I learned from my mistakes."
Hiraki and Lopez, associate editor at The Business Journal in Kansas City, Mo., were among five pairs working together in a pilot mentoring project last spring that matched alumni of the Chips Quinn Scholars program with new Scholars. The goal was for Scholars to learn from journalists who have been in their shoes – both as newspaper interns and as participants in the Freedom Forum program.
For Summer 2002, the mentoring program expanded to include 14 Chips Quinn alumni who are sharing their wisdom with interns.
“We try to impress upon the Scholars that this program isn’t just about an internship or a scholarship," said Karen Catone, director of the Chips Quinn Scholars program. “It’s about developing a network of minority journalists that can provide support throughout one’s career. By providing alum mentors and experienced writing coaches, we demonstrate our support and show that we are here to help Scholars succeed in their newsrooms."
John C. Quinn, a Freedom Forum advisory trustee, and his wife, Loie, created the Chips Quinn Scholars program in 1991 in memory of their son, John C. “Chips” Quinn Jr., a newspaper editor who valued newsroom diversity. There now are more than 700 Chips Quinn alumni.
The idea for the mentor program dates back to 1999, when 100 alumni gathered for a reunion. They formed a multicultural organization dedicated to advancing diversity in newsrooms across America. The Chips Quinn Scholars Association, as the alumni are known, dedicated itself to networking, mentoring, recruiting and retaining journalists of color and developing careers.
Kristen Go, education reporter at The Arizona Republic in Phoenix who attended that meeting, said the mentoring program fulfills several goals of the alumni association and tries to address an issue that has stumped the news industry.
“The Chips Quinn program really instills in you the importance of diversity and the importance of caring," said Go, a 1996 and 1997 Scholar. “When you look at the numbers of young minority journalists and their retention, it’s been horrible. This is one way we can directly address retention."
Surveys show that blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian-Americans make up about 12% of the newspaper newsroom workforce, according to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001, more minorities left newspaper careers than were hired — the first time the ASNE surveyed showed a net loss in journalists of color.
Lopez said volunteering as a mentor gives Chips Quinn alumni a chance to give back. “It’s important for Scholars who are new to the program to understand that when we talk about family and resources, it’s not lip service. I still feel I haven’t given back to the Quinns and the Freedom Forum for what they’ve given me."
To be a mentor, Chips Quinn alumni agree to attend part of an orientation session with a new group of Scholars and participate in a training session. Cindy Stiff, a career coach with the Freedom Forum’s ASNE/APME Fellows program, teaches alumni mentors active listening skills, strategies on motivating journalists and how to work through specific writing problems.
For alumni mentors who work with Scholars not in their own newsrooms, Chips Quinn writing coaches Dick Thien and Mary Ann Hogan train on ways to coach effectively by e-mail and phone.
Alumni mentors also can turn to a writing coach if they are stumped by a question from a Scholar.
Scholars who participated in the spring 2002 mentoring program said they enjoyed working one-on-one with the alumni and appreciated the access they had to them. Editors also were grateful to have coaching help for their interns.
Gary Graham, managing editor of the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, said having Lopez work with Hiraki “was like having another editor added to our metro desk. Our editors regularly edited Ryan’s copy, but having Manny as long-distance support staff strengthened the learning experience for Ryan."
Scholars were given a tip sheet on how to use their mentors and writing coaches effectively, such as making sure to keep in touch and share unedited stories as well as work samples as they appear in the newspaper.
New mentors are advised that their role is to be a coach and a sounding board about journalism and workplace issues, not a Scholar’s best friend or substitute parent. Some alumni mentors have learned that coaching young writers is a balancing act.
“I didn’t want to come on too strong," said Maria Garcia, a 1997 Scholar and mentor for the spring and summer programs. In the future, “I’m going to take the liberty to be more involved and give more feedback."
Garcia, an education reporter for The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., said she didn’t want any Scholar to repeat the experience she had in her first newspaper internship. She wrote calendar items and obituaries because she didn’t ask for other assignments. A veteran reporter — a mentor — later took her under her wing.
“This is an opportunity for me to recall where I’ve been and to realize I really have come a long way," Garcia said. “I'd tell other alums that the mentoring relationship is mutually beneficial. You get as much as you give."
Lopez still wonders whether he gives the right advice to the Scholars he mentors. But he says he gets more comfortable with each question he answers, and he knows the alumni play a vital role in the success of the Chips Quinn program.
“We add to what the Scholars learn in the newsroom and from the other coaches," Lopez said. “They’re great resources, but they aren’t people of color who have been the only minority working in a newsroom. There is value in us being there also."